PATLiSci: Probe Array Technology for Life Science Applications
Project Leader: Harry Heinzelmann of CSEM SA +41 32 720 5533
Jürgen Brugger of EPFL/STI/IMT/LMIS1, expert in Functionalization. CL array microfab and functionalization. Nanotechnology-top-down fabrication methods for nanowires
Nicolaas De Rooij of EPFL/STI/IMT/SAMLAB, expert in microsensors, microfluidics and
BioMEMS
Hans Peter Herzig of EPFL/STI/IMT/OPT , expert in micro-optics and photonic crystal-based sensors
Agnese Mariotti of UNIL/Centre Pluridisciplinaire d'Oncologie, expert in Membrane microdomains
Ernst Meyer of UniBasel, expert in Functionalization/Sensing
Pedro Romero of UNIL/Biology and Medecine, expert in Cancer immunology and immunotherapy
Horst Vogel of EPFL/D-MATL/nanomat/BOM, expert in vesicle & cell arrays
The development of techniques based on micromechanical force sensors (micro-cantilevers) is of increasing importance for applications in biological sciences. Scanning force microscopy and related techniques allow for high resolution imaging e.g. of membrane proteins, offering unprecedented insights into their structure and their functioning. Furthermore, related non-imaging methods such as force spectroscopy allow studying the mechanics and the adhesion forces between materials ranging from proteins to entire cells. An impressive body of literature on mechanical properties of molecules and their interaction forces has been generated in the recent past. However, little has been done so far on a cell level, due to the complexity and the number of the experiments to be conducted.
Interestingly, it has been shown recently that the stiffness of cancer cells affects the way they spread in the body. Equally important are the adhesion forces of cancer cells to other cells. The measurement of nanomechanical properties of cells as well as cell-cell interactions as a function of milieu parameters is thus of particular interest in cancer research.
The nanomechanical properties of microcantilevers allow to use them as highly sensitive probes for the detection of molecular species adsorbed to them. The additional mass and/or the surface stress exerted by the adsorbents changes the mechanical properties, such as their bending or their resonance frequency, and can be readily detected. This method has been developed into a technology that is often described as mechanical nose, since many of these cantilevers in parallel, each responsible for the detection of a specific target substance, detect an ensemble of substances. The nanomechanical nose mirrors the design of the human olfactory system, where mechano-transduction in olfactory cells is coupled to the biological neural network, i.e. the brain. The old medical art of diagnosing disease by its odor, limited by observer dependence and lack of quantitative analysis and the limited sensitivity of the human nose, thus finds its correlation in nanomedicine, where nanomechanical olfactory sensors allow quantitative and objective analysis of carcinogenic diseases in point-of-care early diagnostics.
This project is about further developing probe array techniques for life science applications, notably in the context of cancer research. The consortium shows the balance between experts in sensing technology as well as oncology.
posters from 2011
Integrated MEMS actuation for force spectroscopy in liquid Jonas Henriksson, Maurizio Gullo, Jürgen Brugger
Parallel AFM imaging and force spectroscopy using two-dimensional probe arrays for applications in cell biology M. Favre, J. Polesel-Maris, T. Overstolz, P. Niedermann, S. Dasen, G. Gruener, R. Ischer, P. Vettiger, M. Liley, H. Heinzelmann, and A. Meister, Journal of Molecular Recognition (0, )
The development of techniques based on micromechanical force sensors (micro-cantilevers) is of increasing importance for applications in biological sciences. Scanning force microscopy and related techniques allow for high resolution imaging e.g. of membrane proteins, offering unprecedented insights into their structure and their functioning. Furthermore, related non-imaging methods such as force spectroscopy allow studying the mechanics and the adhesion forces between materials ranging from proteins to entire cells. An impressive body of literature on mechanical properties of molecules and their interaction forces has been generated in the recent past. However, little has been done so far on a cell level, due to the complexity and the number of the experiments to be conducted.
